Another bid to smuggle 13 children to Pakistan foiled

The Afghan national defense and security forces have once again thwarted a bid by the anti-government armed militants to smuggle thirteen children to Pakistan.

According to the local security officials in Ghazni, the children were rescued in Qarabagh district as the militants were looking to smuggle them to Pakistan via Paktia province.

Acting provincial police chief Mustafa Mayar said the militants were apparently looking to smuggle the children so that they can be enrolled into the Madrasas for militancy trainings.

He said at least three people who were looking to smuggle the children were also arrested by the security forces.

This comes as at least twenty five children were rescued during a similar operation in Ghazni province as the militants were looking to smuggle them to Pakistan.

The latest attempts by the militant groups to recruit children for the militancy comes as the Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Taliban forces in Afghanistan have added scores of children to their ranks since mid-2015 in violation of the international prohibition on the use of child soldiers.

The rights group’s research shows that the Taliban have been training and deploying children for various military operations, including the production and planting of improvised explosive devices (IED).

One factor of the Afghan conflict is the Afghan government's failure to maintain a balance in its foreign policy. The imbalanced foreign policies of governments have paved the ground for Afghanistan to turn into a battlefield of proxy wars.